Arabic version: كير يحل حكومة الوحدة في جنوب السودان قبل انتخابات ديسمبر
According to Allafrica, President Salva Kiir dissolved South Sudan’s Transitional Government of National Unity on September 22 and appointed an interim executive ahead of general elections scheduled for December 22, 2026.
The decree ends the power-sharing arrangement created under the 2018 Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan, which was intended to end the civil war that began in 2013. A day earlier, Kiir signed electoral-law amendments removing requirements including completion of a permanent Constitution and a national census before elections can be held.
The amended provisions allow Kiir to remain president with his constitutional powers during the electoral period and until a newly elected president is sworn in. The first vice president and other vice presidents have been removed from office, a development that has alarmed opposition groups.
Eight opposition groups and civil-society organizations wrote jointly on September 23 to IGAD Executive Secretary Workneh Gebeyehu and African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf. They said the 2018 agreement had failed as a framework for managing the country’s political transition.
Riek Machar, leader of the opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition, remains under house arrest and is on trial on treason and murder charges that he has rejected. Bishop Santo Loku Pio Doggale, Auxiliary Bishop of Juba, previously warned against holding elections without a voter census and defined constitutional framework. The December 22 vote would be South Sudan’s first national election since independence in 2011.
